


Keep Running From Tomorrow

by Carsonian



Series: Young Avengers AU [2]
Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Hurt Steve Rogers, M/M, Not a follow-up of the previous fic, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Super Serum has Super Problems, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 20:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29337978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carsonian/pseuds/Carsonian
Summary: “Bucky, where is he?” Tony repeats, arms crossing. He feels the gauntlet unravel from his arm and sink into his skin, the click of a key turning.“Tony, I don’t --”“Is he in there, then?” Tony asks, nodding at the gym door, “Asked you to stay guard?”
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Young Avengers AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154900
Kudos: 63





	Keep Running From Tomorrow

“Where is he?” 

Tony heads straight to Bucky, who upon seeing him startles from his slouch against the corridor’s wall.

“What?” Bucky blinks rapidly, “Oh hey, shit.”

“Bucky, where is he?” Tony repeats, arms crossing. He feels the gauntlet unravel from his arm and sink into his skin, the click of a key turning. 

“Tony, I don’t --”

“Is he in there, then?” Tony asks, nodding at the gym door, “Asked you to stay guard?”

“Tony, would you calm down for a moment.” Bucky says, hand coming to pull Tony off his stride towards the gym. 

“Let go, or else I’ll get the armour out.” Tony says, trying to yank his arm out of Bucky’s grip. Bucky holds firm, and pulls him far enough that the gym door is no longer in Tony’s line of sight. 

“Would you listen to me?” Bucky grits out, and Tony huffs in frustration, “No, seriously, look. He’s gone in his head, alright? Halfway through the mission, I don’t know what it was, had him shaking throughout the drop and when we’re in the field, he goes hard. Harder than he needs to, and Carter noticed it, alright. Tried to pull him out but he disabled the comms unit.”

“Fuck, okay, fuck, I gathered as much.” Tony mutters, “Then let me see him? Huh? I can help him.”

“Tony, stop fucking pushing -- Tony!” Bucky says, almost angry as he looks him over, “Are you even in the right space to be doing that?”

“I just had a maths exam.” Tony rolls his eyes, “Finished it and came here when I got the alert the mission went wrong.” 

“He told me not to let you in.” Bucky continues, “Half out of his mind, and that’s what he tells me before telling me to guard the door and wait. You don’t think he’s got a reason for that?”

“Bucky,” Tony scrambles at the boy’s arm, the metal one, his hand meeting the shoulder blade, “Come on, please, you know I can help him. Get out of it. I’ve done it before. You know, come on.”

“Why did he tell me not to let you in, then?” Bucky asks, eyes steel. 

“He’s worried. He said he didn't – look it doesn’t even matter. I can help him, and he’s gonna hurt himself the longer he’s in that state. You know, we’ve both seen it.” Tony pleads, "You can't say you'll stand by and let that happen."

“Fuck, I, why would you say that,” Bucky turns his head to the doors, steel moving to make space for worry, “I don’t know, Tones, I don’t know if he could forgive that.”

“I’ll tell him it was me, okay, I’ll tell him I forced you.” Tony bribes. 

Bucky turns an unimpressed look to him, “You think I mean me? Tony, if you get hurt on account of him, he’s not going to forgive himself.”

Tony swallows, “He won’t hurt me.”

“You sure?” Bucky presses, and then when Tony goes quiet, shakes his shoulder lightly, “Tony, are you sure?”

Tony shakes his head, “Never on purpose.”

Bucky watches him for a moment before releasing his grip. He steps back, a hand reaching to push his hair back; a nervous gesture Tony’s all too familiar with seeing. 

“Yeah, not on purpose,” Bucky’s lips thin, “Not sure that’ll matter when it comes down to it.”

“I’m going.” Tony says, pushing away from the wall.

“You want me to come?” Bucky offers, “I could hold him down.”

“Yeah, that didn’t exactly work the first time, did it?” Tony says and immediately knows it’s a little too mean, a little too cutting, but he can’t quite find it in himself to turn back now. 

There’s been a rubber band in his throat, stretching his throat dry and taut, since he heard the Director’s orders through the comms link after his exam. Carter’s always been unflappable in battle, a ceaseless force that adjusts to temperature and circumstance with ease. But in her call to pack it up and debrief, her voice had been rough, snarling, at Steve of all people. 

The gym door gets opened, and like an arrow his eyes meet Steve’s where he stands in the middle of the boxing ring, demolished equipment around him. His shield is nowhere in sight, but the left side of his face has a bloody smudge on it, and the sight is startling enough that Tony moves forward on instinct. 

Steve stills, and it’s only then that Tony realises he’d been moving, vibrating on the spot prior, like a machine overworked. His gaze isn’t quite human where it rests on Tony’s, there’s something too fixed in the gaze, unflinching. It's not quite unfamiliar. 

“Steve,” Tony says through a tight throat, “Steve.”

Steve hears him, and his face twitches, a sneer curling his lips in an ugly expression. 

“It’s me, Tony. I’m here, okay. So, can you just, please, come --”

They never tested the limits of how fast the serum made an average person, Tony thinks, watching Steve come to a stop in front of him in what felt like three broad moves. 

Up close, Steve’s panting, his face and arms slickened with sweat. There’s a little blood on the cuff of his sleeve and his hands have angry purple strokes across the knuckles but they aren’t torn. His body’s vibrating again, like a coil pushed to its limit. It's not the worst he's been, under this particular circumstance. 

“Hey,” Tony mumbles, “Hey, you’re okay, now.” 

He reaches forward and places his hands on Steve’s cheeks. Steve stills under him, and his eyes meet Tony’s, searching.

“You in there?” Tony jokes, poorly. He strokes his thumbs across the skin on Steve’s cheeks, and the boy’s eyelashes flutter in tracking the motion. “Steve, Steve, it’s okay. Come back.”

Steve groans, long and guttural, and it’s like seeing the sun come out for what it does to Tony’s heart. 

“Okay, hey, Steve, yeah, it’s fine. You’re okay, it’s just me and you.” Tony's rambling, relief pulling words out of his throat. The rubber band’s been cut loose. 

Steve shifts his stance in a staggered movement, and then he’s leaning into Tony, enough that they both end up lowered on the ground, Steve’s head resting on the curve of Tony’s neck. It’s a few moments before Tony feels Steve move, abrupt and jittery and recognisably human. He pulls back, blinking rapidly before looking at Tony. 

“What --” He swallows, “What the fuck did I do?” 

“Nothing --”

“Did I hurt you.” Steve asks, low and ashamed as his eyes flicker over Tony’s body.

“No. Steve, I’m not hurt. Look at me, nobody’s hurt. Well, in fairness, the bad guys are kinda hurt, and you’re definitely gonna get your ass kicked by Carter but --”

Tony breaks off, shaking his head. Steve watches him, still panicked and on-edge. More prey than predator now.

“That doesn’t matter right now.” Tony says firmly, “You’re okay, and it’s fine, and no one’s hurt.”

“I went away again, didn’t I?” Steve asks, miserable, “Bucky was there, and I told him to, I told him --”

Tony watches Steve pull at his scalp for all of three seconds before he’s reaching out, pulling the hands into his. Steve’s hands unfurl and he grips Tony’s hands, eyes on where the gauntlet is shimmering just out of apparition.

“Why are you here?” Steve whispers. 

“I heard Carter over the comms. I figured – I figured this happened. So I came.” 

“Why?” Steve asks, and there’s the clenched jaw, righteously popping up and Tony would be annoyed if he wasn’t so worried, “I told you to stay away if it happened again. I told Bucky to keep you away --”

“No, Steve, you don’t get to do that.” Tony says, shaky with worry and anger, “You can’t just choose to kick me out of your circle, out of your life, when it doesn’t suit you.”

“Doesn’t suit me?” Steve’s hands tighten on Tony’s hands for a moment, before unclenching entirely, “You think that’s what it is? Not maybe the fact that your safety is compromised anytime you step into a room with me when I’m like – like that?”

“I have the fucking armour, Steve!” 

“Yeah, and how many times have you used it against me?” Steve yells, sudden and loud, “What happened to the armour at your place? I came to, and you were in the corner, bleeding from your nose!”

“Oh my god!” Tony scoffs, “I told you -- I tripped and knocked my nose, it wasn’t your fault!”

“You fell while trying to run away from me! Because I was fucked up, and you were scared, and you can’t --”

“You can’t let me do that.” Steve finishes, quiet and broken, “I can’t go through that, do you understand? It’s not something I’m capable of moving past.”

“Steve, I’m your friend.” Tony says, “Before any of this, that’s what we agreed. That we would be friends, no matter what. Before co-leaders, before boyfriends, before any of it, we would take care of each other. So you can’t ask me to know you’re in pain, and expect me to keep on with my life. You sure wouldn’t.”

“Not like this, I can’t --” Steve draws away, and Tony follows him, shushing at the pained choking noise Steve lets out. He wraps his arms around Steve. Ever since the serum, hugging Steve’s been like holding a giant bear, his back an expanse that feels impossibly wide. But in this moment, with Steve hunkered and withdrawn, it feels almost like before, with the phantom ache of protruding shoulders and skinny limbs pulsing under Tony’s fingers. 

“Don’t push me out. Please.” Tony begs, and he thinks maybe it’s wrong, wrong to be so selfish in light of Steve’s pain, but it isn’t as if Steve doesn’t know the ugliness of Tony’s brain, of his self-centeredness and greed and insecurity. Steve’s hands are like brands where they land on Tony’s back, solid as iron. It's the same, he thinks, slightly dizzy, the way Steve holds him, tight and close like he wants to mould Tony to him. That never changed.

“Just let me help you.” Tony finishes, and he feels Steve shudder, his lips pressing into Tony’s temple, an open-mouthed caress that isn’t quite a kiss but isn’t quite anything else. 

“It’s not acceptable,” Steve whispers, and his fingers press at Tony’s jaw to lift until their eyes meet, “If you get hurt, it’s not an outcome I can accept.”

“Ditto, you righteous idiot.” Tony says, heart beating like a drum in his chest, “And where do you get off assuming I’m gonna get hurt? I’m the tank of our team. I literally have a tank in my body.”

Steve shakes his head, the motion jarring them, and Tony rocks back before Steve pulls him in with hands on his waist, “Too tired to argue about that right now.”

“Then let me take care of you. Let yourself rest.” Tony replies, digging his hands into the meat of Steve’s shoulder. Steve’s eyes widen at the motion, mouth gasping slightly.

“Come on, soldier-boy.” Tony says, “Let’s go to your room.”

“The gym --” 

“Uh, yeah, we’ll deal with that later. Also, that isn’t your blood on your face, is it? Whose is it?”

“I have blood on my face? Where?”

“Okay," Bucky drawls out from the doorway, "We’re good, here?” 

His face is bored but it’s a poor mask for the relief that’s clear in his eyes. 

“Buck,” Steve straightens even with the sudden lethargy that's taken over him, characteristic now of these -- incidents, “Gotta have a word with you.”

“Tony threatened me with the armour! And we’re not having that conversation now, anyway. ‘Cause I've got to somehow hide this mess from Carter, and all I'm willing to hear from your ungrateful ass is “Thank you, Bucky. You’re God’s gift to the world”.”

“Yeah.” Steve rolls his eyes, "Not saying that."

“Let’s go get cleaned up.” Tony says. 

“Yeah, do as your boy says. I’ll handle this.” Bucky looks around and a note of uncertainty filters into his tone, “Somehow.”

“Get Nat to help!” Tony suggests. 

“Oh, thanks! Great tip! Would literally rather go up to Carter and tell her I did this myself.” Bucky snarks back. 

“Are we going?” Steve says, impatience and exhaustion evident in his expression. Tony and Bucky exchange a quick look, and Tony winces apologetically. Bucky’s expression clears, and he nods, gentle.

“Okay, okay, let’s go.” Tony soothes, as he drapes Steve’s arm over his shoulder. After a moment’s pause, he pinches Steve’s waist. Steve raises his eyebrows at him before wrinkling his nose in acquiescence. 

“Thank you Bucky. You’re God’s gift to the world.” Steve says, “And Nat has the keys to maintenance so suck up your pride and ask her for help."

...

There’s conversations to be had, of course. Tony has been mapping them out in his head, exchanging thoughts in quiet moments with Bucky, knowing Steve’s likely to resist any form of real external help. The serum was perfect for him, gave him the tools he needed to fight the battles he’d always wanted to fight. It’s difficult to conceive of the ways in which it’s chipped at him, taken his humanity and scraped the edges blunt. Imperfection is not a quality Steve has the privilege of showing. It’s a secret they share, the three of them, the captain with his two moons, his lover and his brother. But it’s a burden too, and one that’s becoming visible outside of their orbit.

There’s conversations to be had, but not in this moment, Tony thinks, not now. Steve’s resting, finally, easy and light in his sleep. Tony is curled up next to him, eyes on the clean movement of Steve’s chest. No blood, no rage, no omens. It’s almost shameful how quickly he falls to sleep, armour dormant in his skin, fingers hooked in Steve's shirt.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh I wish I could post this in the 'Verdana' font. Dialogue needs work but all I had to hash it out was myself and the mirror.


End file.
